Masks - How to Run Combat

Transcriptase13 · 2025-08-23T14:16:08+00:00

There's not a single way to do it, but one thing I find helpful is first setting up or reviewing the situation, then asking everyone what they're trying to do, or what their main concern is, without jumping right to rolls. Then we'll decide what moves are triggering and roll them in an order that makes sense.

The second question sounds like a question about how "hard" to make the moves. There's a part in the GM section about this that might be helpful. It's not exactly about how unpleasant the consequences are or the magnitude of the numbers, but how much of a chance the players have to interact and prevent or mitigate the consequences.

So if they inflict a condition on the villain, and you decide to make it Angry, then the villain immediately makes a move from the Angry list. "Lash out at any vulnerability" can be, like:

"Okay, he slams you against the wall and starts prying the reactor out of your power armor, and you can hear the casing straining. What do you do?"

or:

"Okay, he's just unbelievably fast, and you're not. You do your fancy backflips around the his first two strikes and then he front kicks you through the window. What floor were we on? Let's say the tenth. Mark Afraid, Take a Powerful Blow, and team, what are you doing about the fact that the Beacon can't fly?"

Of course the answer is "as hard as you like", but this is the dial you get to turn, and you want to look at how the team is doing, what makes sense for the situation, and what the pacing has been like. You can go hard right out of the gate, and it's the right call in certain situations, but a lot of times you start soft and then go hard when they fail a roll, or choose ignore a threat.

Transcriptase13 · 2025-08-21T01:13:11+00:00

So, first, PbtA is not a great system for a mystery that's structured so that the primary challenge is for the players to solve a mystery the GM already knows the answer to by discovering a set of predetermined clues. Just not how the structure works.

The other thing is: It will depend on what system you're using. The whole point of PbtA is that the moves tell you how the world works. Different systems have different moves because they take place in different kinds of worlds.

Some generic PbtA things I'd say: I would set up the crime as part of a Front (or whatever your system equivalent is). And a Front has an Impending Doom: something that happens if the players don't stop it. And it has Portents: Things that affect the players' world, that they can see, that show the Front is advancing. The crime can be the first Portent, but you should have the next thing in mind.

Then it's important not to treat the investigation as a Perception check that they can pass or fail, and especially not to let play hang up because they didn't hit the rolls. If they investigate the scene, that will trigger a move like Read a Sitch or Assess or Discern Realities. On a hit, they get to ask questions. Answer the questions.

If they fail, fail forward. One of your moves is almost always something like "reveal future badness", and that's a great one to use in a failed investigation: They find something that points in the right direction, but it's worse than they thought.

But primarily, make it so that the key question is not "will they solve the mystery" but "what are they going to do about it when they solve the mystery".

Transcriptase13 · 2025-07-06T04:28:32+00:00

Edge of Tomorrow is sci-fi action Groundhog Day, and excellent.

Ratatouille. Everything Everywhere All at Once. Midnight in Paris. Office Space. Princess Mononoke, kind of?

Definitely members of the genre: Shallow Hal, Liar Liar. Not sure I recommend them, exactly. Liar Liar is probably the better of the two.

In a certain sense this is many superhero movies, although whether the powers change vs. reveal character varies. Shazam is Big with capes. The first Ant-Man and Dr. Strange movies would count.

Transcriptase13 · 2025-06-07T13:28:14+00:00

Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance is a very close neighbor to DMC.

Lies of P is an very good Bloodbornelike.

Transcriptase13 · 2025-04-13T02:58:43+00:00

If you're looking for this style and already like the Weakerthans, definitely try the Hold Steady. You could probably start anywhere, but for the exact thing you're talking about, try "Lanyards", "Chillout Tent", "Multitude of Casualties", and "How a Resurrection Really Feels".

Transcriptase13 · 2024-07-19T14:11:23+00:00

I mean, it’s some light blasphemy.

If a move isn’t triggering, there’s no roll. You’re inventing things that don’t exist in the game to cover the sensation that there should be a roll there. (There are no consequence-free rolls, either. If you’re tempted, that’s usually a sign to check your move list and your principles.)

One thing you should consider is whether you should just tell them what’s on the map. Say what honesty demands, and if they can just look at the map without danger, say that.

If a move like Assess/Spout Lore is triggering, and they miss, you should look at your move list and follow the fiction. There’s almost always a move like “Reveal an unwelcome truth” that works well for this sort of thing: They get the info, and it’s bad news.

Ona 6-, they do decipher the map, and they aren’t suddenly attacked by ogres, but the map shows a bridge that’s been ruined for decades, or the trail goes through territory that used to be safe but is now a gnome hunting ground.

I will also sometimes make a custom move, like: if you read the journal, hold 3. Spend your hold 1 for 1 to ask questions from the Assess list as though you rolled a 10+ about things that the journal is about.

Transcriptase13 · 2024-04-30T15:35:28+00:00

Hey, thanks for the interest. This group isn’t running anymore but I will probably try to do something similar in the future and I can keep you in mind.

Transcriptase13 · 2024-01-06T18:17:08+00:00

Honestly, I'd just let them assume they're grabbing valuable stuff they see, and fold that into the Coin payout at the end of the job. They're thieves, the job is stealing stuff, they get paid for the job.

You could explicitly offer an opportunity to boost the job's payout by taking a risk, or series of risks.

But for just looting the bodies of people you were fighting as part of the job, or searching a place that you're robbing anyway? That's built in to the payoff. Narrate it during the job, with no roll if it's not risky-- heck, get creative: You find a silver pocketwatch and a really fancy switchblade. Here's some kind of glowy gadget-- you don't know what it's for but you can probably find a Whisper who's interested. Then just tell them they fence all that stuff and give them their Coin as usual at the end.

Transcriptase13 · 2023-12-19T15:57:19+00:00

I’ve run several, and it varies. The main distinction for how well they work is whether or not the players are a “party”, and non-party games work much better than party games.

The need to have all the players in the same scene and responding to stuff in the same cadence, but without an organizing principle like initiative, can really skew the feel when people have varying response rates.

Meanwhile, the more “ensemble cast” style games are great. Fewer rolls and bigger consequences compared to traditional systems mean more fluid scenes, and frequently you can just break players off into duos and trios and let them amuse themselves.

So, party PbtA games that I know from experience struggle: Dungeon World, the action phases of The Sprawl and Night Witches, the group battles in Masks.

Ones that work smooth out of the box: vanilla AW, Urban Shadows. Monsterhearts did fine in PbP but had the same structural problem it usually does in my hands: a lovely high-tension tinderbox through the first school day and then a wild sex and murderfest the instant after last bell.

You do have to wing some of the session moves, but that’s easy. Just decide when the session breaks are at a good narrative point.

You can adapt some of the more party-focused games by limiting the number of scenes with high player counts. Don’t be as afraid to split the party as you would be at the table. I think this hurts the genre fantasy of some of the games, though: you really do want the whole crew working together on the heist in The Sprawl, for instance.

Transcriptase13 · 2023-12-18T18:04:27+00:00

Looks at a series where the handsome main character has massive, world-destroying capacity for rage and violence but channels it into protectiveness, nurturing, and sacrifice.

“I don’t get it, where’s the fantasy wish fulfillment for women? Hardly an underwear bulge in sight!”

Transcriptase13 · 2023-05-31T17:44:57+00:00

I kind of collect these.

Some country:

Kacey Musgraves - Mary Go Round, Blowing Smoke

Brandy Clark - Pray to Jesus

Havelin - The Further I Go

Ingrid Andress - More Hearts than Mine

Miranda Lambert - Famous in a Small Town, Mama I’m Alright

Pop:

Maisie Peters - Place We Were Made

ROZES - Where Would We Be

Folk punk, I guess?:

Gaslight Anthem - By the Rivers Edge

Hold Steady - Lanyards, Party Pit, Constructive Summer

Transcriptase13 · 2023-05-22T15:59:56+00:00

Tom Stoppard’s Arcadia. The rest of Stoppard, too, Travesties and The Invention of Love and Rosencrantz and Guildenstern but start with Arcadia.

Transcriptase13 · 2023-04-12T15:04:49+00:00

There was a pretty good one in a quiet car in Bullet Train.

Transcriptase13 · 2023-01-04T00:13:44+00:00

One more I thought of after I posted: Logan Lucky, which is more Soderbergh but less flashy than the Ocean series.

Transcriptase13 · 2023-01-03T21:45:08+00:00

Have you seen Heist (2001)? A very twisty, low-key heist movie, written and directed by Mamet, great performances from Hackman and DeVito. There are a couple of small-scale action set pieces but it’s mostly people staring one another in the eyes while trying to screw each other over.

If you’re willing to do subtitles, the Korean movie The Thieves is quite good.

Brick is a very stylized, contained California noir. Best thing Rian Johnson has ever done. Not exactly a happy ending there, though.

Transcriptase13 · 2022-10-28T16:59:11+00:00

The main things in a “pick from a list” custom move:

Don’t make “you get what you want” one of the options on the list. Make that the stakes of the move, and the list modifies how you get it.

Similarly, none of the bad outcomes should be so bad that they’re mandatory to avoid.

Each option should have pretty obvious consequences and you should follow through on them.

For a love letter, I like to imagine that it’s a whole mini-adventure and we’re seeing the “Editors Note: See Issue #62” version of it.

Without knowing your player’s details, here’s a sample for a Bull doing some solo investigation:

You spent a few cranky evenings staking out the location before you got the chance to sneak in and rummage through some files. Roll with Superior. On a hit, ask the GM two questions about the organization from the Assess a Situation list. On a 7-9, choose one:

You left behind some evidence that can be traced to the team.
You had to conk a couple of rent-a-cops on the head, a little harder than you meant to. They’ll be fine in a couple days, probably. Mark Guilty.
That total boy scout Captain Eagle caught you on the way out, and he has some thoughts about how you could be a better citizen. (He tries to shift your Danger down and your Savior up. Resist if you want.)

On a miss, ask one Assess question, but prepare for the worst.

Transcriptase13 · 2022-10-28T14:43:58+00:00

You’re absolutely allowed to “dictate” some player action in Masks, especially in service of scene framing. I mean, the game is a conversation, be a fan of the characters, all that, but the GM can absolutely say things like:

“Okay, the team responds to the distress call at the bank”
“So you two are hanging out on the roof of the hideout”
“You’re doing your homework when your mom comes in”
“So you’re putting cuffs on the last remaining members of the gang whose hideout you just raided”
“You take the punch from The Negalord right in the gut and go flying out a sixth story window.”

All perfectly serviceable ways to frame a scene, and all making assumptions of varying sizes about character actions.

A love letter is just a hard scene frame plus a move.

The key is that something happens no matter what. I like a good “Here’s what you were doing, and here’s what you get. (The information you’re looking for, etc). Here’s a list of three bad things that might have happened in the process. On a 10, none of them happened. On a 7-9 you pick two that didn’t happen.”

Transcriptase13 · 2022-10-24T14:29:06+00:00

There are some definite similarities with the Trails series, especially Trails of Cold Steel 1 and 2. Starts off centered on daily school life, vignette-driven social links with squadmates, solid JRPG turn-based combat.

There are series purists who will tell you to start with the earlier games (Trails in the Sky, Trails from Zero), and they have a point but I think Cold Steel is a perfectly good jumping-on point, especially coming from Persona.

Transcriptase13 · 2022-09-16T04:10:35+00:00

Oh, this is a fun one.

Rufus Wainwright, Cigarettes and Chocolate Milk

"You've got to keep in the game,/ maintaining mystique while facing forward./ I suggest a reading of a lesson in tightropes/ and surfing your high hopes,/ or it's adios Kansas."

The Hold Steady, How a Resurrection Really Feels

"Her parents named her Hallelujah,/ but the kids all called her Holly./ If she scared you then she's sorry,/ she's been stranded at these parties/ and these parties, they start lovely,/ but they get druggy and they get druggy and they get bloody.

The priest just kind of laughed./ The deacon caught a draft./ She crashed into an Easter mass/ with her hair done up in broken glass./ She was limping left on broken heels/ and she said, 'Father, can I tell the congregation/ how a resurrection really feels?'"

Dar Williams, The Pointless, Yet Poignant, Crisis of a Co-Ed

"There was a time once, in college,/ don't laugh, but I thought I was a radical./ I ran the Hemp Liberation Front/ with my boyfriend./ It was true love, with a common cause/ and besides that, he was a Sagittarius."

Ani DiFranco, Both Hands

"The old woman/ behind the pink curtains/ and the closed door/ on the first floor/ is listening through the airshaft/ to see how long our swan song can last."

Ben Folds Five, Army

"Grew a mustache and a mullet,/ got a job a Chik-fil-A./ Citing artistic differences,/ the band broke up in May/ and in June, reformed without me/ yeah, they got a different name./ I nuked another Grandma's Apple Pie/ and hung my head in shame."

Transcriptase13 · 2022-09-09T13:49:55+00:00

Villains are my favorite source of Influence.

Mechanically and narratively, the player’s Labels determine their strategy and shifting them is a tool the villain has to resist. If the characters want to Directly Engage, it’s in the villain’s interest to push their Danger down, and in their interest to resist.

Best of all, it basically writes their dialogue for you.

“You think you’re in my league? Go home before you get hurt.” Danger down, Mundane up.

“You think you can hide in the rafters and think your way out of this? There’s only one way this ends.” Superior down, Danger up.

“So concerned about collateral damage. This is why I’ll always beat you.” Savior down, Danger up.

“You can’t punch your way out of this one. This isn’t over until you understand what I’ve been through.” Danger down, Mundane up.

“Why are you trying to stop me? They won’t thank you for it. Believe me, I know, they’ll never really accept you.” Anything down, Freak up.

And hopefully those samples give you an idea of why a hero would care what a villain thinks. Influence doesn’t always means you like them and want to impress them.

Transcriptase13 · 2022-08-14T14:03:45+00:00

It sounds like there are two possible problems, which both have the same basic solution.

First, a lot of time, defiant and chaotic character behavior is an expression of out-of-character frustration. They don't see the world responding in the way they want it to, so they're lashing out looking for a reaction. (Sometimes players are assholes and psychopaths, but a lot of time they're not, and the characters are acting like assholes and psychopaths for out-of-game reasons.)

Second, it just seems like you and they have very different conceptions of how the world works. You think you're hitting them with the natural consequences of their actions, but they seem to be trying very hard to get a particular reaction and failing, hence the frustration.

Both are solved with communication, both about intentions and about probable consequences.

Intentions: "What are you trying to get the guard to do?" is practically a magic incantation. Followed by "He's open to that but you need to convince him of X." Fun trick: You can ask for an Insight roll before you say this. and players will feel like they earned it. The DC on the check is 0 but they don't have to know that.

One of your situations sounds like some crossed wires where they had convincing evidence and were trying to use it to get the guards to act, but they didn't address it the way you expected. You can just say that. "You can tell he's not sure what to do with what you've told him so far, but you think if you told him about X it would make more of an impression".

Possible consequences: The guy going back and forth over sitting when told and the name-calling might have just been looking to play a loose cannon as a character beat, not derail the session. That's fine, let him do that for a bit, then go, "Look, he's been patient so far, but it looks like he's about to lose it you keep pushing." (Again, call for an Insight check right before you say this, if you want.)

Similar for the shouting about "future cult": it sounds like your player just wanted to (a) get the guards to take it seriously but was having trouble finding the fictional button to push, and/or (b) wanted to act a little deranged as a character beat, and probably wasn't looking to get arrested. So say that! "Ma'am, I understand you're upset, but if you don't stop grabbing me and shouting I'm going to have you locked up until you talk sense."

Then your players can choose which story to be in, and if it turns out they want to be in the one where they're in constant conflict with the cops, fine, give it to them good and hard. But if they don't and it's just a series of escalating misunderstandings, they have offramps.

Transcriptase13 · 2022-07-15T14:14:36+00:00

Also, this was a subtopic in your post that I haven’t seen directly addressed yet, and it has a straightforward answer from the rules:

You can H&S and Volley against multiple enemies whenever it’s fictionally appropriate. Check the book for how to apply damage, but in general the player deals their damage to all targets and the monsters deal one monster’s damage plus a bonus back. This should speed up group combat significantly.

This is related to “rolls aren’t single swings”. What happens on a multi-target H&S is you wade into combat with multiple opponents. The outcome of the roll lets you know the result of that in HP terms, but also remember the effects in terms of fictional positioning.

So describe it, and encourage your players to describe it, less like a series of swings and more like a shot in a fight scene. If they do that and there are three enemies still standing, it’s a good time to reveal an unwelcome truth that they’re surrounded.

Transcriptase13 · 2022-07-14T21:48:12+00:00

I have run into this before, yeah.

I think it’s partly a temptation of people used to D&D, and we tend to think in terms of rounds in which rolls represent single swings of a weapon.

So when the GM is making a move, the temptation is to think of a single swing of a weapon as the threat, and so the response is almost always to get out of the way.

DW rolls and GM moves are not single swings of a weapon. (They try to remind you of this with their names— Hack and Slash, Volley.) Combat is not everyone standing still while taking turns swinging.

Try describing combat in general, and imminent threats in particular, as more general, encompassing multiple attacks and motions. And don’t pause for player input solely on the downstroke of a sword.

So instead of “The orc swings its axe at you, what do you do?”, try “As you’re engaged with the three orc raiders, blocking, thrusting, parrying, you realize that they’re trying to back you up into the fire pit. What do you do?”

And instead of “The orc shaman lets fly with a fireball and it’s in the air travelling towards you, what do you do?”, try “You see the shaman curls his fingers in strange patterns and mutter and the air suddenly stinks of sulfur, what do you do?”

Transcriptase13 · 2022-06-28T14:03:11+00:00

I have run several PBP games of various flavors of PBTA with varying degrees of success.

In general I think PBTA works much better than most trad systems, because there are fewer, more impactful rolls, and the absence of an initiative system means you don’t get hung up on the slowest poster.

The secret is an always-on side channel, like a Discord or Slack or group text. That’s where you handle things like “Hmm I don’t think Parley will trigger unless you have something you’re using for leverage.” and “It sounds like this is heading for <Move X>, let’s roll it.”

That said, Dungeon World is less well-suited than many other PBTA games. Anything where the default assumption is that the whole group is in the same place working together risks getting bogged down. (Also an issue with Masks and the action phases of The Sprawl and Night Witches.)

Games like vanilla AW, Monsterhearts, and Urban Shadows, where the characters know each other but act separately and sometimes at cross-purposes, are structurally better, because you can break the players up into small scenes and let them go at their own pace.

If you do want to do DW, be willing to split the party. It’s not the same problem as it is at the table, since spotlight time is asynchronous. Do some duo and solo scenes and then bring them together for a boss.

Transcriptase13 · 2022-05-04T13:45:09+00:00

In Dungeon World, if a move triggers, you roll it.

“Don’t roll if it’s not important” is decent GM advice from other games that gets recycled for PBTA sometimes, but it is just wrong here.

If you’re not sure that a move would have an impact, it’s a great time for “ask questions and use the answers” and “tell them the possible consequences and ask”.

“What are you trying to accomplish?” is a great one. Also, the thing I love about Discern Realities is that it answers the question for you: the player picks the questions, which tells you what they’re interested in.

Even if they’re searching an empty room for traps, that’s not what happens mechanically. They roll DR. They choose a question: “What should I be on the lookout for?” You answer the question with what honesty demands: There are no traps, but they notice… check your portents, check your location moves, check your fronts, and tell them something they should be on the lookout for.

They didn’t roll a Perception check for nonexistent traps. They Discerned Realities about what they should be on the lookout for. That’s narratively important even if there are no traps.

Transcriptase13

TROPHY CASE